Perry nomination goes to full Senate for vote to head energy department

Former Texas Governor Rick Perry (C) is greeted as he arrives to testify at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on his nomination to be Energy secretary on Capitol Hill in Washington

WASHINGTON, D.C.  The Senate Energy Committee overwhelmingly approves Trump nominee Rick Perry to head the Energy Department. Perry’s nomination now heads to the full chamber for a final vote.Perry’s 3-1/2-hour hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources last week was one of the shortest and least contentious in a long list of sessions to vet Trump Cabinet nominees.'”I believe the climate is changing. I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by man-made activity. The question is how do we address it in a thoughtful way that doesn’t compromise economic growth, the affordability of energy or American jobs,” Perry said to the committee members Thursday.As energy secretary, Perry, 66, would oversee a substantial chunk of Trump’s energy portfolio. He would lead a vast scientific research operation credited with helping trigger a U.S. drilling boom and advancements in energy efficiency and renewable energy technology, and would also be in charge of maintaining the United States’ nuclear weapons arsenal.Throughout the campaign Trump promised to bolster the U.S. oil, gas and coal industries, in part by undoing federal regulations curbing carbon dioxide emissions. He sees Perry, who was governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015 and whose nomination has the support of the energy sector, as someone who can help usher in jobs growth.Perry added during his hearing that he regrets having previously called for the department’s elimination – a proposal he made during his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.”After being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination,” he said in his opening remarks.Democrats on the committee expressed worry that Perry would weaken the Energy Department’s functions and potentially target its army of scientists focused on climate research.Perry sought to assuage them.”I am going to protect the men and women of the scientific community from anyone who would attack them,” he said in response to a question from Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state about whether he would cut the department’s climate science budget.When pressed on whether there would be budget or staff cuts to key research programs at the department, Perry said: “I will be an advocate (for the programs) … but I’m not sure I’m going to be 1,000 percent successful.”Perry said much of his focus running the department would be on renewing the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. More than half of the department’s $32.5 billion budget goes to maintaining nuclear weapons and cleaning up nuclear waste.”As a former Air Force pilot during the days of the Cold War, I understand the deterrent value of our nuclear weapons systems, and the vital role they play in keeping the peace,” he said.Perry said he was generally supportive of a state’s right to block the siting of nuclear waste dumps, like Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but fell short of ruling out the federal government’s power to impose them over state objections in some cases. Nuclear waste disposal is one of the top hurdles to growth in the U.S. nuclear power industry.Department leadership under Perry would represent a pivot from being run by learned scientists to a person who is known for ties to energy interests.The current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, is a nuclear physicist who led technical negotiations in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, while the previous head, Steven Chu, is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist.Perry recently resigned from the board of directors of Energy Transfer Partners LP, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline opposed by Native Americans and environmentalists.President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to speed up the completion of the project, dealing a blow to protesters.

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